The bones of houses show in the summertime

[sovay]

I spent much of yesterday running pre-blizzard errands, but the local state of the parking spots is the truest gauge of the meteorology about to go down.



I have not yet managed to get hold of her memoir, but I deeply appreciate being notified of the existence of E. M. Barraud, who identified herself with chalk-cut hill figures, candidly described her relationship status as "technically single, but 'married' in a permanent homosexual relationship with another woman," published under her assigned initials and was known in Little Eversden where she worked for the Women's Land Army as John. She gave her wartime responses for Mass-Observation as both a man and a woman: "People are people, not specifics of a gender." I had never even encountered her poetry.

Comments

[ethelmay]

Surprised there doesn't seem to be an ebook. There is a recent hardcopy reissue.

[sartorias]

What a fascinating person.

[kaffy_r]

She's someone I'd never heard of and, as others have said, she sounds like a fascinating person.

Your picture is the first proof that "dibs" parking is found in places other than Chicago.

[sovay]

Surprised there doesn't seem to be an ebook. There is a recent hardcopy reissue.

Yes—it should be the one I linked, with the introduction by Luke Turner. The problem is that I would want a hard copy, but I would have settled in the short term for reading it off the Internet Archive.

[sovay]

What a fascinating person.

I am so glad she left such a record to be known by.

[sovay]

She's someone I'd never heard of and, as others have said, she sounds like a fascinating person.

fleurdelis41 sent me the article from the Museum of English Rural Life. I could read her diaries if I had access to the Mass Observation archives!

Your picture is the first proof that "dibs" parking is found in places other than Chicago.

I didn't know it could be found in Chicago! It is a regular feature of the snow-covered urban landscape of metro Boston.